Pictures from School

So this year we had choices of poses and colors of backgrounds. I chose purple for each the same pose. I spent all this time doing their hair and picking out a shirt that fit their personality well. I did Abbie's hair all cute with these new bows that my sister made for her and then I get the picture back and she had taken them out of her hair and put the bows right behind her ears and they did a green background instead of purple. SO... thank goodness for retakes. Well, I wrote on the package that I want PURPLE, not GREEN, and low and behold, its still green... UGGGGHHHH. PLUS her smile is all fake, it looks like she doesn't have any teeth! That girl, my goodness. At least her hair looks cute, right?

Halloween Party/Costumes

Abbie decided to be little Mermaid but then changed her mind the day of our Halloween Party and decided she wanted to be snow white. So glad I spent $35.00 on her costume with Disney.com. Victoria was a Genie... and I decided I should dress up too since I was in charge of our Church's Halloween Party this year, so I dressed up as a Genie too! I wore my Dance Team Uniform from High School. Good thing it still fit :) Brad put on his Brazilian Jiu Jitzu costume and a wig. Its really the only day of the year he can wear that wig without being made fun of. So I just realized that we didn't get pictures of the girls for Halloween. Can you believe that? They were having so much fun that when I had the camera out they weren't around and I was so busy with the party. Geesh, I guess I'm not a good blogger. Well, at least Brad and I look good.

Hooray its Christmas Again!

So my Christmas Season starts on November 1st. I know there are some Naysayers out there that claim it doesn't start until the day after Thanksgiving but to them I say "Nay." With all the time it takes to decorate for Christmas, and the good feeling that it gives you when you see those decorations up, why not get the most out of it? So my blog is officially "wintery" today. However, I will say we all took a walk outside today with short sleeves and shorts on because its in the 70s and sunny here in Dallas. Yep, its wonderful. I'm feeling grateful today for being here in Dallas. Grateful for my wonderful family, both my close immediate family as well as my extended family. And I'm grateful for all of my friends too. I read the words to "Count your many blessings" today in Relief Society, that is such a great hymn. If you have the time, go take a look at it, it really helped me as I'm feeling overwhelmed with work and home and the holidays and just life. I've got so much to be grateful for. During testimony meeting the counselor's wife bore her testimony and said, and I quote... "God Rocks"... that's Texas for you. But he does.

-angel

First Tooth

Victoria lost her first tooth last night. It took at least an hour for her to get up the courage to count to three. More videos coming soon. She had some great one-liners though, here's one of them...

Coodie Bugs

Well, about a year ago a little Kindergarten Boy kissed Tori on the lips. She was of course horrified... (and probably a little delighted)... this was around October when the weather was changing. She had some dry skin and was itching like crazy. She told me that a boy kissed her on the lips when she came home from school and I informed her that she shouldn't let boys do that. I told Brad later that day when he was on his way home from work. Tori was itching her dry skin at dinner time and complaining about it and asked why she was so itchy. Brad, as quick thinking as he is, said, "Oh No, do you have the Coodie Bugs?" She looked at him confused and said "What's the Coodie Bugs?" And he replied, "Did a boy kiss you?" Her eyes got big and surprised that he would know that since he just got home. She sheepishly said, "yes." And Brad said, "UH OH, when a boy kisses you, you get the coodie bugs, and it makes you itch!" She was determined to never kiss a boy again...

Continuation of story...

Abbie informed Tori that a boy kissed her on the lips about 3 weeks ago and this is how it went:

Abbie: "A boy kissed me."
Tori: "What? Where?"
Abbie: "On the lips."
Tori: "Oh no, you must have the coodie bugs, are you itchy?"
Abbie: "No."
Tori: "Oh, you just wait, you'll be itching soon. That's bad Abbie, you can't let boys kiss you on the lips because you'll get coodie bugs."


So apparently Coodie Bugs are just as real as... Santa Claus... and the Tooth Fairy ;)

Abbie's Growing Up

I was watching Wizards of Waverly Place the other day with the girls and realized that Abbie has a lot of resemblence to Alex. So I took pictures of Abbie today to post... But as I took these pictures and looked at them, I realized, wow, she really is growing up, and then I was trying to figure out who she looks like, and maybe she looks more like my sister, Andi? What do you guys think? She's definitely getting bigger. (First two pictures are Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place, Last two pictures are of Andi and I growing up, probably close to the same age?)

Lizzy

Well, here's a little update on the Lizard now, since so many have been asking... "Do you still have the Lizard?" The answer is of course, Yes. I'll be honest, I've named her, so now I'm growing a little attached. As much as I play that this thing is horrible and yucky... I'll admit I do find a fascination with this lizard, its beautiful colors, and the way that it snaps crickets in half leaving their antennas hanging out its mouth. Don't get me wrong, I think its disgusting, but... its still fascinating. So not only do we still have the lizard, we actually also acquired a sort of Cricket Hospice. I would consider it a hospice only because calling it a hotel would be weird. These crickets often stay there for 1-5 days, their last bit of home before they make their final journey to their "home in the sky" by way of Lizzy's mouth. Brad found out from the guy at Petsmart that if you put a wet papertowel and some crushed up dog food the crickets will live longer, that way you don't have to go to Petsmart every other day, you only have to go once a week. The large crickets are about 10 cents each. It adds up though, so I've supplemented her diet with wild crickets I've found on our floor. I'll bet they were looking for the hospice anyway. Can you believe I've caught 3 crickets in our house? These aren't the cute little buggers I used to catch in the field when i was little, these are the nasty black crunchy ones. SO GROSS! I don't catch them with my bare hands, don't worry, I use a cup and a paper. Those little guys are FAST! So yes, we still have Lizzy... and a cricket hospice. Maybe one of these days I'll get a video of Lizzy eating a cricket so you can enjoy watching with some popcorn :)